I sure hope these old muscles recuperate

Susie I hate the heat, I usually get really sick when its this hot. I've been drinking excess amounts of water and that seems to be helping a bit, but I sure hope it rains again sometime soon!

Do any of you grow caryopteris? I have a bunch in the nursery and they are blooming now. I am so impressed with them, bees and hummingbirds love them, they bloom late and this is one tough shrub. It takes drought and abuse. It does lose leaves in the winter but then the gophers, deer, bugs, ect all leave it alone. I am going to put a row of them in back of my heather, the deep blue should go well with the purples and pinks of the heather. I have this one
http://www.parkseed.com/garden...
and I also have one called Sunshine Blue which has yellow foliage. its a shorter one and I may put some of those with the heather too.

Gypsy, those pictures were amazing. Just beautiful, now why does my yard not look like that? I know why, I need some more hardscaping, I would love to have a few loads of concrete to do patios and walkways. I still have to go back and see the details on some of them. Some very good ideas there.

I have 4 planters on the back deck and 2 large barrels that I have repotted. They look nice but it took me a long time and they were bigger than I thought. I put all new soil in, the soil had been in there for 3-4 years and was so dry, would not longer take in water. This is on my deck by the ocean so it gets lots of wind. Now that I have them all planted up and looking good, I am going to have to water them every other day or so....see I just made more work for myself. It never ends......lol.

I have hummingbirds by the hundreds. They are screetching and diving and sometimes they dive bomb me and come really close to my head. I have never had this many, word must be out that this is a free lunch area. Those little rufus are so agressive, they are so busy chasing off the others that they need to eat twice as much.

I do remember riding horses when I had not ridden for awhile. The inner legs, just who knew how many muscles there are in there that don't get used that much. And of course, the fatter the horse the more muscle aches....

Uh, Bex....you'd better refresh my memory...lol..WHAT pictures?

I grew caryopteris once years ago and it died immediately and haven't tried it again...though I looked at it longingly a few times.

Have to go to Costco and Trader Joe's...

The SF gate pictures of gardens, it was you, was it not? Geeze now I dunno where I got it from. Perhaps carypoteris does not like your heat. I like it because it blooms late and its such a deep blue.

I am going to scratch off my tickets now. More than likely I will not mention them again....but I may return in a real good mood.

If the pictures were sent or posted to you recently, it wasn't me...lol. Got a link?

Hey, zu....if you didn't have a calendar, would you still know what month starts in a couple of days?



Susie, if the guys weren't here I wouldn't be cooking either.

trust me... there are exactly a bazillion muscles in the inner thighs and buttocks, I know because every one of them are screaming at me today

Somebody, somewhere had this link and it was really nice. Beautiful ideas.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...

It may be messed up a bit, I had to nose around here and there lots to see.

Thanks for the link....I haven't seen those before, so I didn't send them. Either me, or their site, but I had to really fight to see some of the pics. I should check The Gate more often, I used to check their recipes all the time. Love pics for ideas. You'd think my place would get better for all of the 'ideas' I look at, but.... nope.

I think it takes some money to get in the hardscape. My path was not cheap and I did it myself, took lots of concrete and its not done. But it made that whole area of the garden look better.

I visited a woman in Fortuna CA who had an acre and it was done so beautifully. Of course she was very, very rich and had lots of workers. And lots and lots of stone and cement work. I was jealous for a long time, but ha, I said, she does not have an ocean. And mine always looks good with no work at all.

I am going through years of garden magazines. Pulling out stuff I want and going to get rid of them. There are years of them so I am starting at the bottom and its just like a stack of new magazines, but they are taking up too much room and have to go.

Been there, done that.....I've managed to get rid of all of the magazines except for the 'gotta keep' certain ideas that are now in a binder. I moved so many boxes of magazines back and forth for years....no more. Now I look at them and pass them on....but,yes, when you haven't looked at them for awhile, it's just like a new magazine...lol..

It is actually raining here! I thought I heard thunder while making coffee but wasn't sure. Then I could hear a few drops on the tin porch roof,now it's raining lightly but steadily. I can pretend we live in an area that gets summer rain. Sure would love to see it rain all day. Quiet outside, just the birds and raindrops. Gonna take my coffee outside.....

That is just plain bragging. We got nothing. And nothing in the future. Lots of time we don't get rain till Dec. I don't know if I will last till then, this watering is just killing me. I have my big sprinkler going all day but then have the hand watering because lots of plants shed the water off their leaves to the drip zone, however when in a pot the drip zone is outside the pot. Dumb things! I thought I was doing well till I picked up a pot and it was bone dry so I have yet another section to hand water.

I got a guy with a strong back coming to work today. He is 25. Last time he came I had him take out 2 huge pampas grasses. I did not see him for awhile but he called and will come today. So I will have him do the heavy weeding under my trees, the beach grass has grown in there and its almost up to my waist. It has not been weeded in at least 3 years. That should keep him busy....lol.

I had a couple come and visit me a few months ago. They are moving here, already bought a house but she is still working, I cannot remember where but it some place like Montana or Utah where its cold. She was all excited when she saw my garden and what she could do, they are moving her because she likes to garden and is retiring. He came yesterday and asked a favor of me. He wanted to know if she could work here and I could teach her about gardening, she wants to work about 12 hours a week. I told him that would work fine for me and I will give her big discounts at the nursery and she gets to pick through all my discards. He left and called later and said she is way excited and will be her at the end of next month. Oh, wow, next month is tomorrow. Now where did July go????

I came in last night and was really tired, just sat down and the doorbell rang. A woman came with a dead plant, she did not know what happened. I told her the only way it could have died was to dry out. She said she kept it watered and look it was still wet. I told her if you put water on a dead plant it will not come back. So we went to the nursery and I got one exactly like it that was not dead and gave it to her. Then I smiled at her and told her to water it BEFORE it was dead. Geeze. I wanted to say, did you not see the CLOSED sign out there????

Gates, Bex. It's all about fences and gates. The ones who will come past your 'closed' sign are the ones you don't want to see. Like the bozo census worker who was working our road and seeing my salvias sign up on the road, AND THE GATE CLOSED, drove down our drive anyway, in the evening, to honk at the gate and ask if I had salvia divinorum...for a friend, mind you, 'cause he "wouldn't use it himself".....

Are you good with having someone there to 'help while you're teaching her'? I would find that in the end that would cause me more work and get in the way...

I do have a gate but its got lots of stuff in front of it and my house is down a long narrow gravel road, so there is no place to turn around. They would have to back up and there are fences on both sides so it may cause problems if one of my neighbors loses a fence due to one of my customers that is dumb as a post. And I have quite a few like that.

I think I am okay to train this one, I was able to train my daughter, who is not in any way a plant person, and it was not that hard. I have things set up, i have potting area where you can repot easily, like an assembly line. And I have some gardens that its easy to see what is the weed. In the nursery, its pretty easy, I can send someone with fert, top dress and a bucket. They can weed the pots, fert and top dress, really a no brainer. What I see happening is she will last a couple hours and go home and it will be a done deal. I did meet her and I like her so am willing to try.

I am working really hard getting my heather ready. My guy that built the new condo, who is actually a cousin, will be coming to get plants soon. And since he is a builder of more expensive homes, which means they are with ocean views, they have deer and wind. And I am the only one in the area with heather, I want him to be impressed and use me for all his projects. He is only 32 and already done 3 homes in the million $ plus range. He did not do any of the landscaping but he wants to in the future.

Now I don't want to go out and get started.....I really don't. Having a second cup of coffee and considering if I have a choice.

mmmm, yeah. I'm contemplating cleaning the kitchen floor and fridge....wondering if have a choice...

Yep, his new homes would be ever so much more appealing with landscaping.....

What happened here? Did you all go somewhere and not invite me?

Well, I assume everyone is busy in their gardens, taking vacations or has won the lotto. Thats what I am assuming!

Hi rebecca!
Well, I'm not lucky enough to be occupied with any of the fun stuff you've mentioned. Here's my agenda:
1. battle rat in roof. It's been a week. Truly Nolan is coming tomorrow to set traps and seal entries to the roof. It is exhausting managing this thing. My Standard Poodle is hot on the trail but can't get to it fast enough when it leaves the roof. I've set a Havaheart trap with fresh organic peaches from Whole Foods and not a nibble. Hopefully Truly Nolan and get it .... $620 for a year trapping and maintenance.

2. I'm a news junkie and get very wrapped up in this disastrous news of late. Another thing I can do nothing about. Rats and the attic, rats in Washington.

3. Too hot to garden though I will manage to mow the lawn today. We're having a cold snap this next week, down to about 104.

4. So, what about ya'all???? I know.. I'm just a bundle of giggles,huh?

Well a rat on, or in the roof is not fun. I had one in the attic and I could hear him nibbling all night. I put up a rat bar and thank goodness he ate it and went somewhere else to die. I got my daughter the rat zapper, she had one rat, she thought. It did nothing for a week then she ended up catching 7. Rats are disgusting.

I cannot look at the news. I put it on for a few minutes to see if I need to worry about the world ending today, if not, off it goes. Its just too aggravating, its like a bunch of boys facing off in the school yard. Too childish and egotistic. Yuk. If you look at those guys then you understand why there are so many happy single women. Not one of them look like anything you would want to spend time with. And they should be the cream of the crop.

I am eagerly waiting on winter, I will sleep for a week, at least. Oh, will the rains ever come???

I was telling my friend, I only have to complaints.

All summer I complain that I am over worked and tired.

All winter I complain that I am broke and cannot work outside.

See, only 2 complaints!!!

I'm lurking. Neighbor's little girl started a brush fire on Saturday and we were all running around doing what we could. DH went to the up-slope neighbor to wet down their property, where the fire was heading. I watched the four kids. Neighbors on the other side were checking on us, because we didn't have time to tell them what was going on. I think the fire crew were the calmest of all of us. The child had been caught the week before playing with matches and given a good "talking to" with some added emphasis. The matches were hidden but she stacked furniture and found them. She's six and just doesn't get the import of the act. Mom is worried. The firemen talked to the girl, but were far too gentle in mom's opinion, so she's going to talk to a counselor and the fire marshall and see if there isn't something that is age appropriate that might help. The child was not in the least afraid and wanted to see the results of what she had done. That did not go over well at all.

Some of the work of artist James Hubbell / his home...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...